What’s up, July?

Posted on by Jake is Reading

– What Happened –

June was my first full month book blogging and it was a big one, between catching up on my 6 Netgalley ARCs (never again!) and completing a reading challenge for #ReadersWithoutBorders. Thank you SO much to everyone who has supported this event – @JDRoberts_SFF has now raised £97 for Doctors Without Borders, almost reaching the £100 goal! The good news is that you have until the end of July to donate via the Just Giving page for your chance to win a free book!

Here are the books I managed to get through in June:

My read through of the shorlisted novels for the 2020 Hugo Awards was a mixed experience, with my favourite book of the bunch being Gideon the Ninth.

The shortlisted novellas were all fantastic and I have trouble predicting which one will win the Hugo, though This is How You Lose the Time War has a leg up with the authors already taking home a Nebula and Locus award.

My favourite books of the month would have to be STORMBLOOD by Jeremy Szal and Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe, so I’m excited to read some more more great sci-fi in July! While Velocity Weapon was shortlisted for a Philip K. Dick Award, I’m surprised it hasn’t appeared on any of the major award shortlists.

– What’s gonna happen –

While I probably need to focus a bit more on studying for my nursing exams, July is another exciting month of reading for me!

#WomenInSFF

The lovely folks at The Fantasy Hive have created this event to celebrate female authors throughout July. Follow the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram to discover new work from women writing speculative fiction! With this in mind, these are the books on my July TBR:

I was so excited that after finishing Velocity Weapon I could jump straight into an ARC of Chaos Vector. I’m half way through and loving it so far!

The Space Between Worlds is an interdimensional sci-fi novel coming out in August. I’ve ordered my first ever Illumicrate which I believe will feature this book, so I’m excited to post some pictures of my goodies when they arrive in August. Fingers crossed this will continue my lucky streak of awesome sci-fi.

I don’t know a lot about Lauren Beukes’ Afterland, but I read her fantastic novel Zoo City way back in 2010, and it really influenced the type of fiction I read now. I’m so happy to have the chance to read her latest work.

I was also lucky enough to win a copy of We Ride The Storm from Devin Madson, and I can’t wait for it to arrive! I’ve seen nothing but rave reviews so I’m thrilled I’ll be getting my hands on the accidental #kiill addition.

Knightmare Arcanist Blog Tour

I will also be taking part in my first ever blog tour thanks to The Write Reads. I’ll be reading Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall and publishing my review on July 13th.

This is a YA book described as “A fast-paced fantasy with magical creatures for those who enjoy the Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera series) by Jim Butcher, Unsouled (Cradle Series) by Will Wight, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan.“

#Transathon

In July we are also celebrating trans authors with the #Transathon hashtag. If I make it through my other 5 reads I will definitely be joining in, though I haven’t decided what my read will be yet!

If you’d like to participate or if you’ve never read SFF by a trans person, check out this list of trans/non-binary SFF authors. Personally I highly recommend Yoon Ha Lee and Charlie Jane Anders.

Other than that, my only goal for July is to try and spend less money on books – please wish me luck.

What will you be reading this month?

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15 thoughts on “What’s up, July?”

  1. What did you think of Middlegame? I absolutely loved it, are you going to write a review? My July TBR post is going up tomorrow, and I’m also reading Chaos Vector and Afterland😁

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  2. Oh great, we can compare notes! I’m really excited about both of those 😊
    Yes I read Middlegame too but I was a little conflicted about it! There’s a fairly long post about it on my blog where I try to decide if I liked it or not 😅

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  3. I saw your 2.5 rating for the book I’m reading now, A Memory Called Empire, and I’m waiting until I finish the book to start reading it and comparing notes. This book is…odd. I’m almost 50% in and I don’t have any strong feelings on it one way or another…?

    I’m so interested in Velocity Weapon. Might put that on my TBR for the end of the year.

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  4. I hope you enjoy it! I think I had really high expectations so I was surprised how much it had in common with Ancillary Justice, and then that disappointment maybe affected the rest of my experience. But plenty of people loved it!
    I’m writing my review of Velocity Weapon now 😊

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  5. Oh noooo, I’m literally the only person who didn’t care for Ancillary Justice! (Maybe. I think I need to re-read it? It felt like drinking a glass of water and then being asked to describe the taste.) I’m liking Memory a little better than that, so hopefully the experience will be better than that!

    YES for that review!

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  6. Haha I can understand why you wouldn’t like it, did you continue after the first one? I’ve typically read more fantasy over the years so it introduced me to a lot of sci-fi tropes that felt brand new to me, and I really liked it conceptually! I think it was also my first read that was open-minded about gender which seems to be a lot easier to find even just a few years later.

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  7. I did not continue, and to be honest, I remember nothing about it because that’s how bland it was to me. I just know that I was baffled as to why I didn’t react to it. But I have read a lot more sci-fi than I have fantasy, so I tend to inch towards the “WTF is this” sub-genre of SF, where everything is totally nuts. Maybe that’s why I didn’t react? In any which case, I do think it must have had some big ideas because it’s so beloved, and I think it deserves points for that.

    I just came off of Ninefox Gambit, where there was another cross-gender multiple identity meld. Seems to be a thing, maybe started by Ancillary Justice?

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  8. Yeah I get that, it’s quite a contemplative sci-fi with less action. What are your SF recs?
    I think maybe it’s been a bit of a trope for a while, I haven’t read The Left Hand of Darkness but I’ve heard people decide their gender in that. But I think more so now it’s about representation in fiction rather than just playing with the concept of gender as part of the world building

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  10. I’m leaning a bit more heavily towards the #Transathon titles since #WomenInSFF is what I generally read/review anyway, but there’s some natural overlap between the two. Should be an exciting month!

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  11. That’s great! I’m sure will be! I had 3 ARCs from female authors so it worked well for me to catch up on those.
    I read 2 books last month by trans authors (Charlie Jane Anders and Yoon Ha Lee) and I’d love to read more. I’m glad I’ve seen your blog so I can keep an eye out for recs 😊
    If I magically got an ARC of Cemetery Boys to read this month I’d be thrilled, but ill have to wait for my Illumicrate to arrive!

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  12. Wow! It sounds like you had an incredibly busy month in July! I read a decent amount of books, particularly fantasy books written by women, including one by a trans woman. The hashtags and reading campaigns on Twitter are great ways to find other people who love the same books, and get good book recommendations!

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  14. Birthright by Chloe Moore. She’s self-published too! That reminds me, I wrote a tiny review on goodreads – I need to write the whole review!

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